ANC admits to misjudging threat of apartheid forces

The enemy didn't die, but adapted

- By Setumo Stone and Queenin Masuabi

In a candid admission, the ANC has acknowledged a critical misstep in its post-apartheid strategy by underestimating the resilience and adaptability of apartheid-era forces.

The strategic error continues to haunt the ANC and South Africa, shaping the socioeconomic and political landscape in ways the party failed to anticipate.

When apartheid ended in 1994, the ANC believed it had decisively defeated the forces that upheld the system. But this assumption proved wrong.

"We made a strategic error in 1994 in assuming that apartheid forces had been decisively defeated and would never regain influence. Instead, they regrouped in new guises," the ANC admits in its discussion document for its fifth national general council scheduled for December this year.

In the document, the ANC's said it s failure to anticipate the regrouping of apartheid forces left the door open for them to undermine the party's transformative agenda.